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Stay at home mom with dreams of perfecting all things mama.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Stumble upon...

There are many things offered to moms and kids for play time, learning time and activity time and in the last two weeks I've stumbled upon a couple of them.

Last week a friend and I wanted to meet up for a play date on a rainy day. She suggested we meet at the library with the kids. We got there and guess what? They were having a preschool story time and class..FOR FREE! It was really cool. Check it out.



I circled Easton's face...look at how HAPPY he is! The teacher brought out a parachute for the kids to shake around with a ball on it. It was so fun!
Now if you look at the bottom of the picture you will see a little pony tail sticking up...that is Skyelynn. She got in on the parachute action too!


The little girl next to Melanie wouldn't let go of Mel's hand. Too cute!


This preschool time is offered twice a week, every week. There is playtime in the beginning, story time, a question and answer time with a felt board and puppets, dancing, and obviously this parachute thing too! So, during this time the kids were introduced to simple math and counting, shapes, reading, listening skills, and peer interaction skills. Very cool stuff! I can't believe it is all free. I'm so glad to have found this!



Over the weekend we found something else fun to do. We went to Barnes and Noble to meet up with my sister and her kids to play in the kid area. Here, they were having a story and activity time! Once again, it was FREE!

Story time..as you can see some of the kids wore their Halloween costumes.

Here is the activity table...paper bag puppets!

Take ten to find out what your community offers your kids! You may just be surprised how much free learning is available outside of the home! 

Take ten!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Lunch in a tin...

Take a little ten to make lunch a little more interesting than usual. Think outside the regular old lunch plate! Try this idea that my friend Skyelynn so creatively invented.

Use a muffin tin to create a lunch platter of healthy foods. Above we have almond butter and jelly sandwiches cut into skinny "finger food" slices, ranch dip for the carrots, apple slices, cheese slices and turkey meat rolled up. 

I wish I would have recorded my kids' reaction when they saw this lunch. You would have thought they were getting a huge piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream and a cherry on top! They ran to the table yelling "oohh yummy! Look carrots! ooohh apples! Look cheese!" AND, they ate it ALL! 

Try it, take ten to think outside the normal lunch (or breakfast and dinner) routine! 

Monday, October 22, 2012

Teach me...

Kids do a lot of learning on their own, but they learn much more if someone takes time to teach them. Taking ten with each child in the family is important to us. Easton and Melanie are usually involved in helping teach little Skyelynn. This time was no exception.


We used our ABC blocks to play a letter game that was used to teach letters and letter sounds.


As you can see, Easton was the chef. He "cooked" up letters. (A.K.A. tossing letters around in a play pan) Whichever letters the blocks landed on, we taught to Skyelynn.


Look at our perfect little pupil. So studious. After saying the letter and singing a song about it's sound, we also talked about words that begin with the letter we were teaching. Easy as pie. Ten minutes (maybe a little less) of play learning, which is the perfect about of time for a one year old's attention span. 

Take Ten! It's so easy to make your kids smart!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Just a fall thing...

It's still fall and the rain has come. This puts us indoors, but it ain't no thang, it's just a fall thing! We did another fall project today.

I cut letters out of a magazine for the kids to glue to their paper. Any day they get to use a glue stick is a good day! We learned how to spell fall.

So without further adieu...(is that how you spell that?)

Step 1. Cut out different letters from a magazine that spell fall.

Step 2. Get out the markers. Who remembers these babies? They smell delicious, but are very potent...put a large black plastic bag on top of the table you'll be working on otherwise you'll be sorry later. (They run through paper, even thick butcher paper)


Step 3. Have the kids put the letters on the paper to spell the word fall. Make them help you sound the word out!


Step 4. Tell the kids to draw pictures of fall. (Ideas: rain, pumpkins, leaves, trees, etc)

Step 5. Praise them for hard work and a job well done. Take a picture of the final product!


As Easton would say "It's pretty fally!" This coming from the kid who will not draw pictures or write letters! I had to guide him in his picture drawing. 

Take Ten!


Friday, October 12, 2012

Fall is full of projects...

Take ten for easy fall project  fun! Last year the kids and I did a similar project to the one I am about to show you with Christmas trees. I found some glittery, foam Christmas trees in the dollar spot at Target. They came with stickers to decorate the tree.

This year the kids got to decorate a squirrel and a turkey, courtesy of my cousin Haley. She brought these over the other day!


Here they are! A squirrel that says "Give Thanks" and a turkey. Pretty cute huh?

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Even little Skyelynn was able to help out. 

There was a little block in the road during our fall project. The turkey was missing his head! No worries though, I cut one out of construction paper and we taped it on. Pretty funny, the headless turkey.


The final outcome. We have some cute, new fall wall decor! Easy, fun, TAKE TEN!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Take ten to discover

Someone found their shadow the other day...so we took ten to teach about shadows!

Kids discover new things everyday. It is our job, as parents, to make those discoveries more meaningful by describing and teaching what they are seeing. Life is more interesting when someone is there to share it with you. Engage your children! They need it to grow!


Look at those questioning little eyes. It's like she is saying "what's this mama?" Of course once I started telling her, big brother decided to come help too!


She is looking up at Easton while he talks to her about shadows. You can barely make out his shoes in the dark part of the picture.


Easton shows her his shadow.

Take ten to make your child's discoveries more meaningful!